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I think most people are familiar with the scenario of strangers (two or more) being stranded somewhere (desert island, top of a mountain, etc.) and - slowly - being forced to become acquainted. Well, in the Penfield Players upcoming project, the stranded strangers are two people (each with a spouse) who are looking at a desirable apartment in New York City.

A serious problem arises when these two people try to leave this apartment and find that they're TRAPPED. The door knob is missing and they can't get out. The playwright, Bob Randall, turned this situation into a play called "6 Rms Riv Vu" which is how a classified ad would describe a 6-room apartment overlooking the Hudson River.

The Penfield Players, in turn, took Mr. Randall's play and adapted it into a Readers' Theater Performance that will have just one performance on February eighth at 2:00 p.m. at the Penfield Community Center on Baird Road.

Lynne and Ted play two individuals who are interested in renting an apartment near New York City's Hudson River. They wind up being trapped in the empty apartment.(Photo: LOU SINGER)

Readers' Theater is the way people used to enjoy theater at home before television. The actors mostly stood in front of their microphones, clutching their scripts and - at the appropriate time - spoke their parts along with narrators and sound effects. Even with today's extraordinary graphics and special effects, our brains can visualize things that can't be created on stage. Readers' Theater lets the audience experience much more than just the actors performing in front of them.

I attended one of the Penfield Players' rehearsals and got to observe how the director (Chris Woods Martin), the producer (Jeff Moon) and the cast went over the script and discussed how they were going to stage certain movements to blend with what they were reading. There are two main characters: Ann Miller, played by Lynne Sanchez-Fryes and Paul Friedman, played by Ted Wenskus who interact with an eccentric lady with a dog and a bored Hispanic superintendent.

The Broadway premiere of "6 Rms Riv Vu" occurred on October, 1972 and it ran for 247 performances. The original cast was Jane Alexander, Jerry Orbach, Ron Harper, F. Murray Abraham and Jennifer Warren. In 1974, Carol Burnett and Alan

Ted plays Paul Friedman who is a married advertising copywriter. Lynne is married to someone else and the mother of two children.(Photo: LOU SINGER)

Alda starred in an excellent television presentation of this play.

Admission is free. Donations are welcome

The Penfield Players is a non-profit community theater sponsored by Penfield Recreation. Founded in 1966, they are one of the oldest continuing theater groups in the Rochester area. Contact them if you have an interest in theater and you'd like to become involved in any part of it: acting, directing or working behind the scenes. They are open to anyone. www.penfieldplayers.org

These are Penfield Players rehearsing "6 Rms Riv Vu". The player with the striped shirt plays the superintendent and the player in blue on the right is a strange lady in Apartment 4B.(Photo: LOU SINGER)